Walking around Kampala it's hard not to notice the air pollution. People light small smoky bonfires everywhere to burn their trash and garden waste, and there are no smog controls on the vehicles that clog the roads - buses and lorries belch out choking black fumes.
While people drop a lot of litter, there is an army of women that sweep the streets with hand-held reed brushes, as well as cleaning crews that seem to spend their life scrubbing the red mud off entryways and stairs. There's not a lot of industry in Kampala so I haven't seen any chemical pollution, but I've yet to see much of the country beyond the city.
Does it affect your breathing?
ReplyDeleteI walk to work and I usually arrive with eyes and nose streaming from the traffic fumes, which wears off after about an hour. It's particularly unpleasant if you get blasted with exhaust from the side of a bus or if a very smoky truck goes past when you're walking as there are not always sidewalks so the cars pass very close to pedestrians. I wouldn't recommend jogging here as you'd end up with lungsful of soot. But in general, away from traffic the air quality is OK.
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